New Features in BlitzIn 2.5

Index

"Info Window"

• Get information about yourself and others, including graphs of past rating performance
  
  
  
• Experience lessons that interact with a chess board.
  
  
  
• Browse dynamic web documentation from within BlitzIn.
  
  
  
• Configure your ICC preferences and manage the channels you're in through a graphical user interface.
  

More information on the Info Window...

Check for Upgrade

• Check for Upgrade tells you whether an upgrade is available
• Automatically download and install the upgrade and start the new version
  
  

"Premove" Support

• Premove: Make your next move in advance to be delivered when it's your turn again.
  
  
  
• Choose Premove menu item to toggle premove on or off
• Choose Arrow for Premove menu item to use arrows or highlight squares
• Right-click to cancel

More information on Premove in BlitzIn 2.5...

Proxy Server

• Support for connections through a proxy server
  
  

Old Version Emulation

• Change Settings menu sets up options to emulate BlitzIn 1 or BlitzIn 2.
  
  
  
• Gray Board Window menu item allows you to set your game window background to gray like BlitzIn 1.

More information on Change Settings...

Autochat

• With Autochat checked, BlitzIn automatically changes the input menu setting based on context: "Tell opponent" when playing, "Whisper" when observing.
  Note: Text that begins with a forward slash "/" is treated as a command regardless of menu setting.
• Color-codes text in the game input field based on the menu setting (Command/Whisper/Kibitz/Tell opponent) to provide additional visual feedback about whether you're typing in a chat message or a command.
  
  

Seek Graph Improvements

• Draws description in Seek window in color based on the seek type. Also, draws in dark red if there is time odds or the side is forced.
• Shows the real name of the wild variant in the Seek window description.
• Updated seek graph to expand ranges 1000-1500 and 2000+
• Added "2500" label and positioned other labels better
  

• Seek Graph Key dialog colorized
• Seek Graph Key intelligently pops up beside the Seek Graph and not covering it.
• Seek Graph Key dialog can remain up while you click on the Seek Graph, so you don't have to memorize it. Automatically hides when you start a game.
  
  

Board Window Improvements

• New boards added: Standard, Blue, Tan, Purple, Olive, Wooden #3
  
  
  
• Delete button in the Examine palette now labelled with an X
• Seek a Game button added to game board window
• Game board kept to a minimum size in some resizing
  

Challenge Dialog Improvements

• Name of wild variant is displayed
• See what you're being challenged to in a glance
  • Wild challenges are colorized
  • Challenges where the color is forced or there is time odds are highlighted in dark red
  • Ratedness, time control, variant, and color are shown in a large font
  • "Rating changes" is omitted for unrated games
  

Menu/Toolbar/Icon Improvements

• Toolbar buttons, icons in the Event list, and background graphics updated
  
  
  
• Toolbar buttons added for:
  • Notify List
  • New Game Board
  • New Chat Window
• Toolbar buttons for windows can close them too
  
  
• Application and document icons improved and use WindowsXP anti-aliasing
  
  
• Added Undo and Cut to the Edit menu for use in text fields
• Reorganized Options menu: Split up Board into Board and Board Window, Alphabetized Board and Pieces menus, Moved Examine-mode Palette into Board Window menu, Moved Advanced options into some more appropriate spots, etc.
• Menus titles made clearer: Save --> Save Connection to avoid ambiguity with Save PGN; Disable Board Console --> Board Console to avoid double negatives, etc.
• Menu items, buttons, etc. made more consistent and compliant with Windows standards
  
  
• Improvements to right-click menu in the console:
  • Shows you what handle is selected in the menus
  • Is smarter about finding handle in text, e.g. will work correctly if you have "2448^PoohTheBear(FM)" selected
    This also allows you to double-click in the "who" list and right-click even if too much text was selected
  • Omits the handle-related commands if you have more than one word selected
  • Uses "!" to avoid getting the wrong person
    

Foreign-Language Support (in v2.51)

• Supports language DLLs downloadable separately
• New "Language" menu allows switching between languages. Remembers previous language used.
• Launch with Shift key down also invokes language selection dialog
• /language=<arg> command line option for forcing a language. (Pass the DLL name, or nothing for English, or ? for prompt.)

More Sign In Improvements

• Optionally warn about dangers when Save Password is checked
  
  
  
• Displays Sign In dialog window when disconnected
• Help links added to Sign In dialog window
• In Sign In dialog window, you can hit Enter key to login
• The Sign In button is disabled if the handle and password fields are not sufficiently filled in.

Miscellaneous User Interface Improvements

• Solid Background menu item from the Colors menu allows you to customize BlitzIn's background desktop color. Or you can choose a gradient blue background.

• Default window layouts improved
• Arrange Windows menu item added to rearrange windows to their default positions
  
  
• Confirms that you really want to exit, if you try to exit BlitzIn or close a connection while in the middle of a game.
  
• When connected multiple times, Close Connection gives you a choice of connections to close
  
  
• Holds off on putting up Tip of the Day until it has been run some number of times
• The titlebar of the dialog for changing colors shows what you are editing the color of.
• By default Examine-mode palette is on, material count is off, etc.
  

Plus Over 40 Fixes for Bugs in BlitzIn 2.34

• Fixed: Changing and deleting notes simultaneously with Set Personal Profile could cause an incorrect ordering of notes.
• Fixed: Sometimes all the clocks would stop ticking down and would update only when a move came through.
• Fixed: When selected from the Edit menu, Copy did not work.
  
• Fixed annoying flashing of the Events window.
• Fixed: Console text would appear black, often making it invisible, rather than the color it was supposed to be. (Microsoft bug in a version of richedit.dll.)
• No longer opens a "Temporary Console" when you click an Info button in the Events window with webhelp set to 1.
• When the start-up .bz2 can't be found, now removes the corresponding menu item in the Most-Recently-Used list so you don't get the same error every time
• Fixed a bug where typing immediately could thwart the login process. Now beeps if you type text before you're logged in.
• Fixed: If you sent a "message" or "tell" with as many characters as you could type into the input field, the receiver wouldn't get the last three characters.
• Link addresses in the console weren't fully highlighting if they had parentheses in them
• Fixed: After entering examine mode upon completion of a game, the captured pieces pane wouldn't correctly redraw as an examine palette.
• Fixed: When you turn on material count, it might be incorrect until a move comes in
• Fixed: After entering examine mode upon completion of a game, the captured pieces pane would act like an examine palette even if the palette wasn't turned on.
• Fixed a bug where the console would stop scrolling after displaying large amounts of text ("games" command)
• Fixed a bug where the console would stop scrolling after changing console fonts
• Fixed a bug where making an illegal move while examining would start the clock
• Dialogs to edit colors didn't have meaningful window titles
• Fixed potential crash when saving a game in progress.
• Removed unused choices in the connection dialog
• Fixed scaling of Dyche and Bookup pieces on very large boards.
• Fixed: Allowed clicks on an eyeball in the Event list even when it was invisible.
• Fixed: If closed some windows, then did Close Connection, then opened a new connection, the windows that you wanted closed would re-open.
• Eliminated some "Warning, not connected to server" messages when logout via the command-line.
• Fixed memory leaks that caused problems (especially under Windows98)
• Fixed Seeking problems:
  • On the Seek graph seek dots no longer get relocated on the wrong side of a rating category line in the seek graph when their normal spot is occupied.
  • The seek dialog would not be filled out with your normal settings if invoked immediately after login.
  • Control-right-clicking a seek dot or library game could make an examined game go forward a move.
  • Removed obsolete Use SFilter option
• Fixed Find problems:
  • Prevent multiple "Find" dialogs from appearing for the same console
  • Find Next failure should not be "Critical Stop" sound
• Fixed Tip of the Day problems:
  • The background of the Tips dialog and moves list weren't being drawn using the windows background color chosen in the Display Properties (Appearance) control panel.
  • If you clicked "Next Tip" in the Tips dialog the "show tips on startup" checkbox would get reset.
• Fixed wild game problems:
  • Fixed scrolling through moves in Atomic Chess (w27) games.
  • Fixed scrolling over castling moves in Fischer Random (w22) games.
  • Shows (?) for the material of the opponent in a Kriegspiel (w16) game rather than (0).
• Fixes these bugs with the drop palette when examining Crazyhouse (w23) games:
  • If each player has same piece type available to drop, can drag and drop piece of opponent's (it changes to the color when dropped)
  • When examine=1 and the examine palette turned on, a w23 would be examined with the wrong palette displayed
  • When turning on the examine palette while examining a w23 game, the wrong palette displayed
  • The drop palette allowed clicks on a King or other piece when you didn't have any pieces of that type to drop
• Fixed sizing problems:
  • Actions, Draw, and Resign buttons could seriously overlap, so Draw was barely visible.
  • Move list wasn't wide enough to display move numbers past 99
  • Bottom of g's, p's, q's, j's in handles were cut-off in large-sized game windows
  • Adjusted so the board is bigger in "tall" layout of game window
  • Adjusted so the seek window defaults to a larger size on high resolution screens

    More information on Getting a Game...   and Miscellaneous Changes